voice

I sometimes say that, for a writer, I am rather bad at expressing myself. At least, out loud. So I am hoping that using this blog for 486 will help me to get those thoughts out that are hovering beneath the surface but that, for some reason, my mind insists on organzing into intro-body-conclusion format.
We were speaking of voice, and what some of you seem to agree on is that we maybe can't define voice, but we recognize the absence of it. When I look back on the readings, they don't really have much to do with voice. And that made me think that, maybe voice isn't as important as we all want it to be. I'm not out to define "good" writing, but the fact is, in terms of composition and writing papers for practical reasons, there has to be substance to the writing. I do not believe that voice can be taught. It is something that emerges in creative writing or maybe even just writing frequently. But a person can be taught how to organize information in a way that the reader will understand what that person is trying to say. And so, we (ENGL 486) as present and future teachers may talk about cultivating in students a love of writing and helping them develop their unique voice, but I think we all know that it will be the minority of students who actually get to that point. All we can do is give them a foundation, give them some concrete rules for producing solid papers and reports.
Maybe I'm being a little cynical. I've always enjoyed writing, but I have to admit that if my teachers hadn't encouraged me over the years, I probably wouldn't spend as much time on it as I do.